In a bid to attract younger consumers, the 68-year-old American pastry brand Dunkin’ Donuts will axe “donuts” from its logo, nomenclature, cups, and boxes. It will now be called “Dunkin’.”
The move, effective in January 2019, is the centerpiece of a new strategy to appeal to younger consumers by upgrading its image and technology, the company told NBC and Fortune. The overall rebrand will cost the company about $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall).
The new name, the company believes, will draw attention to product offerings aside from pastries, such as its coffee. Caffeinated drinks in general and coffee in particular are huge right now. It’s why Coke bought the UK-based coffeehouse company Costa and Nestle bought Blue Bottle and entered into a deal to sell Starbucks drinks.
Dunkin’ will also simplify its menu from its currently-sprawling list of offerings, following another industry trend—McDonald’s, for instance, axed items off its dollar menu and breakfast menu a couple years ago to make ordering simpler. In addition, the pastry brand will add priority check-out lanes for customers who’ve ordered on the company’s mobile app in inat least 50 pilot locations in the US.
Top competitors such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have made similar moves to modernize their ordering technology. It’s a trend for many food chains serving up breakfast and fast-casual options. In the last three years, Chipotle added mobile ordering. So did Dominos Pizza, which found much success in the mobile upgrade.
“It’s time we take our relationship with our guests to the next level,” the company said in a statement. “We’re now moving to a first-name basis with America.”
Dunkin’ Donuts was founded in 1950 in Massachusetts, and now has more than 9,100 locations in the US, and more than 12,500 around the world. All of them will reflect the name change.